Was Corbyn “an embarrassment” or did he carry himself “with dignity”? Your views on the final TV debate

The final televised Labour leadership debate took place this week on Sky News. During the programme we asked for your views. Here is a pick of the contributions:

“The Sky News channel is watched by 14 million viewers and what did they see tonight? Smith attacking Corbyn personally and Corbyn always pushing Labour policies and always attacking the Tories. Corbyn carried himself with dignity and class. Smith was nasty, snide, brash, rude and never said anything very optimistic and positive about the Labour Party. Vote for Corbyn – the man with a plan to make Labour democratic again and build the membership up to 1 million campaigners and activists. Vote Corbyn to put Labour in the safe hands of the membership. The poll closes on the 21st but vote as soon as possible in case the computers overheat and shut down towards the end.” – Old Radical.

“Corbyn did not even know how many seats we need to win all over news today a complete embarrassment. Also his defence of leaked hit list will make sure he is even more isolated from MPs. His rhetoric about getting the party to work together shown to be another lie of his. Had good PMQs then wrecks the progress he has made. out with some Labour supports last night and we are all completely disillusioned with Corbyn and the infighting.” – Gary Brown

“Blair didn’t just deliver ‘some’ changes. The Labour government of 1997-2010 delivered many positive changes in this country, including a massive increase in NHS spending and a huge improvement in its performance; and the extension and introduction of many rights at work like rights to paid holiday, maternity and paternity leave, rights for fixed-term workers and agency workers; and tax credits that have made life easier for many. But many Corbyn fans opposed the Labour government at the time, and they still oppose it now. It was absolutely no surprise to hear a Jeremy Corbyn fan explain why she booed Owen Smith by saying ‘Everyone hates Tony Blair’. They’ll hate any Labour government, which probably explains why Jeremy Corbyn isn’t serious about having one.” – Carl Gardner.

“Smith also talks about democracy, but refuses to except the result of the EU referendum, the Labour leadership and from tonight’s hustings a general election well that’s not very democratic” – Simon Whitehurst.

“The whole Sky reporting was an attack on Momentum, presenting it as a cult following Corbyn. It is not. It is a large group of very different people from different social groups who just want a fairer society. Sadly, there are as many attacks on Momentum as there are on Corbyn. In my view, Momentum is merely a new awakening of people: encouraged by the slightly radical language used by Jeremy Corbyn… The Labour Movement, and then the Labour Party, used to represent the best of British radicalism, it is the direct descendent of the BPU, the Levellers and even Watt Tyler.” – Sue Fewster.

“The main problem with Momentum/Corbynistas, it’s people who cannot debate beyond just insulting someone else and they find the idea of anyone genuinely having an honest held opposing view as completely incomprehensible… Their side is filled with people who’ve made no effort to even talk to people outside of their own small echo chamber who get petulant and angry whenever they encounter someone outside of it. Heckling and booing is symptomatic of that”. – Aaron.

“Smith basing his entire campaign on trying to put down Corbyn, calling for the party to be unified, then threatening to take his ball home if he doesn’t win tells me everything about him as a candidate.” – Andy Kerrigan.

“I am pro-immigration but immigration does not affect me other than to enrich the city I live in. Many people are not so lucky. I really don’t think that saying “if you vote for us in 2020, we will begin to address these issues & maybe, after a while, you’ll see some improvement” will beat ‘stop immigration & your problems will vanish asap.’ As a party, we have spent so long denying that there are any problems that there is a massive credibility gap. We need policies for the here & now: when was the last time that we challenged the government to tighten up the legislation on minimum wages, use of overseas recruitment agencies, overcrowding of rented houses etc.? Where is our defence of further education against the cuts which restrict opportunities even further, for both migrants & those born here?” – Kathy Fletcher.